Bad Signs

The Dow keeps dropping AFTER the stimulus package was announced. Certainly is not a good sign. But this is worse: anecdotal evidence that entrepreneurs and small business owners are looking into cutting back productivity to fit under Obama's $250,000 threshold.

An issue not largely discussed - heavily progressive taxation often pits the super rich (billionaires) against the merely rich (millionaires). You often hear of folks like George Soros or Jeff Bezos or Bill Clinton ask publicly be taxed more. The reason they acquiesce to such personal tax increases is simple - they have more money than they or their offspring can spend in multiple lifetimes. For them, walk around money does not matter. If you have a billion dollars and you get taxed 75%, who cares? But if you have a million, a tax of 75% is freaking painful.

(*granted Clinton isn't a billionaire, but he'll never want for money, the issue for this "class" is public perception, not paying for things)

For the millionaire class - yes - they are rich by any standard, but they still have to pay for things. Fine, those things might be privileged things - vacations, second/third/fourth homes, luxury cars, private schools, and golf memberships. But these people presumably are productive members of society, do we want to de-incentivize their work?